Nine and Fox Sports stump up $1b for NRL rights

The Nine Network and Fox Sports have reached a deal with the Australian Rugby League Commission to invest more than $1 billion over the next five years for NRL broadcast rights.

Nine and Fox Sports unsurprisingly retained the rights to the NRL, announcing they had secured the deal with the newly formed ARLC. The agreement includes a cash component of $925m, $90m of which will be paid prior to the start of the first season, and advertising packages to the value of $100m.

Foxtel said it had secured the IPTV and computer tablet rights to NRL matches.

"Our new digital and IPTV rights will also enable us to deliver live streaming of matches to iPad, following the path of Foxtel’s incredibly successful London 2012 app,” said Fox Sports Chief Executive Patrick Delaney. "We will also make all of our matches available on demand through Foxtel."

Interim ARLC chief executive, Mr Shane Mattiske said that there are still further opportunities in broadcast rights for Rugby League.

“As significant as this agreement is there are still substantial broadcasting properties yet to be negotiated. These include our New Zealand television rights and our mobile and website properties,” said Mattiske. “It is too early to put a figure on these but certainly the value of the overall broadcasting package is going to increase, as will the opportunities that fans have to experience Rugby League.”

It has been reported rival broadcasters Seven and Ten made bids for the rights last Friday (17 August), but were told this morning they had been unsuccessful.

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